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pendant, an useful barrier, and even a powerful ally to the Company; but that he would be nei "ther, if the conditions of his connexion with the Company were left open to future variations."

XXX.

That if the fact had been true, that the Rajah of Benares was merely an eminent landholder, or any other subject, the wicked and dangerous doctrine aforesaid, namely, that he owed a personal allegiance, and an implicit and unreserved obedience to the sovereign authority, at the forfeiture of his Zemindary, and even of his life and property, at the discretion of those, who held, or fully represented, the sovereign authority, doth leave security neither for life nor property to any persons residing under the Company's protection; and^ that no such powers, nor any powers of that nature, had been delegated to the said Warren Hastings by any provisions of the Act of Parlia ment appointing a Governour-General and Coun-cil at Fort William in Bengal.

XXXI.

That the said Warren Hastings did at last advance another dangerous and pernicious principle, in justification of his violent, arbitrary, and iniqui-1 ̈ tous acting aforesaid; namely, "that if he had "acted with an unwarrantable rigour, and even "injustice,

injustice, towards Cheyt Sing, yet, first, if he "did believe that extraordinary means were ne

cessary, and those exerted with a strong hand, "to preserve the Company's interests from sinking under the accumulated weight, that oppressed "them; or, secondly, if he saw a political neces

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sity for curbing the overgrown power of a great "member of their dominion, and to make it con"tribute to the relief of their pressing exigencies; "that his errour would be excusable, as prompted

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by an excess of zeal for their (the Company's) "interest, operating with too strong a bias on his judgment; but that much stronger is the pre"sumption that such acts are founded on just "principles, than that they are the result of a

misguided judgment." That the said doctrines are, in both the members thereof, subversive of all the principles of just government, by empowering a governour with delegated authority in the first case, on his own private belief concerning the necessities of the state, not to levy an impartial and equal rate of taxation suitable to the circumstances of the several members of the community, but to select any individual from the same as an object of arbitrary and unmeasured imposition; and, in the second case, enabling the same governour, on the same arbitrary principles, to determine whose property should be considered as overgrown, and to reduce the same at his pleasure.

PART

THAT the said Warren Hastings, after he had, in the manner aforesaid, unjustly and violently expelled the Rajah Cheyt Sing, the Lord.. or Zemindar of Benares, from his said Lordship or Zemindary, did, of his own mere usurped authority, and without any communication with the other members of the Council of Calcutta, appoint another person, of the name of Mehip Narrain, a descendant by the mother from the late Rajah Bulwant Sing, to the Government of Benares; and, on account or pretence of his youth or inexperience (the said Mehip Narrain not being above twenty years old) did appoint his father Durbege Sing to act as his representative or administrator of affairs; but did give a controlling authority to the British Resident over both, notwithstanding his declarations before mentioned of the mischiefs likely to happen to the said country from the establishment of a Resident, and his opinions since declared, in a letter to the Court of Directors, dated from this very place (Benares) the 1st of October 1784, to the same or stronger effect, in case agents are sent into the country, "and armed with authority for the purposes of (6 vengeance

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vengeance and corruption, for to no other will they be applied."

That the said Warren Hastings did, by the same usurped authority, entirely set aside all the agreements made between the late Rajah and the Company (which were real agreements with the State of Benares, in the person of the lord or prince thereof, and his heirs); and without any form of trial, inquisition, or other legal process, for forfeiture of the privileges of the people to be governed by magistrates of their own, and according to their natural laws, customs, and usages, did, contrary to the said agreement, separate the mint and the criminal justice from the said Government, and did vest the mint in the British Resident, and the criminal justice in a Mahomedan native of his own appointment; and did enhance the tribute to be paid from the province, from £.250,000 annually, limited by treaty, or thereabouts, to three hundred and thirty thousand pounds for the first year, and to four hundred thousand for every year after; and did compel the administrator aforesaid (father to the Rajah) to agree to the same; and did, by the same usurped authority, illegally impose, and cause to be levied, sundry injudicious and oppressive duties on goods and merchandise, which did greatly impair the trade of the province, and threaten the utter ruin thereof;

VOL. XI.

HH

thereof; and did charge several pensions on the said revenues, of his own mere authority; and did send and keep up various bodies of the Company's troops in the said country; and did perform sundry other acts, with regard to the said territory, in total subversion of the rights of the sovereign and the people, and in violation of the treaties and agreements aforesaid.

That the said Warren Hastings being absent, on account of ill health, from the Presidency of Cálcutta, at a place called Nia Serai, about forty miles distant therefrom, did carry on a secret correspondence with the Resident at Benares, and, under colour that the instalments for the new rent or tribute were in arrear, did, of his own authority make, in about one year, a second revolution in the Government of the territory aforesaid; and did order and direct that Durbege Sing aforesaid, father of the Rajah, and administrator of his authority, should be deprived of his office and of his lands, and thrown into prison; and did threaten him with death, although he, the said Warren Hastings, had, at the time of the making his new arrangement, declared himself sensible that the rent aforesaid might require abatement; although he was well apprized that the administrator had been for two months of his administration in a weak and languid state of body, and wholly incapable of attending to the business of the collec